Last updated: November 12, 2026
Copilot Workspaces is the new name for Copilot Notebooks in the Microsoft Copilot app. It turns notebooks into shared team spaces with live cursors and group work alongside Copilot, while the new Projects area handles personal work. Existing notebooks convert automatically, and Microsoft expects standard release by January 2027.
Contents
- What is new in Copilot Workspaces
- Projects vs. Workspaces
- Availability, licensing and rollout
- How to set up a workspace and a project
- Power-user workflows
- What IT admins should know
- Limitations
- Frequently asked questions
What is new in Copilot Workspaces
Copilot Notebooks let you gather files and references so Copilot answers from that content. Microsoft’s support article on the change now says Copilot Notebooks is called Copilot Workspaces, and the experience is “team-first.”
According to Microsoft, a workspace is a shared place where you and your team keep project information and files together and work with Copilot on an ongoing workstream. The new collaboration features include:
- Working with teammates across different documents at the same time.
- Live cursors that show what other people are working on.
- Seeing who else is in the workspace.
- Sharing the same files and pages, and working on one workstream with help from Copilot.
The change is part of a larger redesign of the Copilot app. Microsoft’s Message Center post MC1535647, first published November 2 and updated November 11, 2026, adds Projects and Workspaces to Home, the new starting screen that brings Chat and Cowork together. An earlier post, MC1479277, said Notebooks would also gain task delegation, full Office editing and collaboration, interactive report creation, audio overview updates and model selection.
Projects vs. Workspaces
Microsoft now offers two ways to organize work in the Copilot app. The table summarizes the differences using Microsoft’s own descriptions.
| Feature | Copilot Notebooks (before) | Copilot Workspaces (new) | Copilot Projects (new) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main purpose | Curated references for focused Copilot answers | Shared team space for an ongoing workstream | Personal space for related chats and Cowork tasks |
| Who uses it | Owner, with optional sharing | Teams; invite people at creation or later | Private to the individual creator |
| Collaboration | Sharing with others | Live cursors, see who is present, work across documents together | None; move items into a workspace to share them |
| Where to find it | Notebooks in the left navigation | Workspaces in the left navigation | Home navigation pane (Cowork tab for Cowork projects) |
| Storage | Microsoft 365 files and pages | Shared files and pages | Does not store content; files stay in OneDrive |
The Message Center post adds that Projects responses are grounded in the project’s context first, then in your broader Microsoft 365 work context. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files that Copilot creates are saved to your OneDrive, under the same permissions, sensitivity labels and retention policies you already use.
Availability, licensing and rollout
Microsoft’s Notebooks documentation says the feature is available to Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat licensed users. Accounts need a SharePoint or OneDrive license (service plan) to create notebooks. It is also available to Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro subscribers.
Microsoft has not published a separate price for Workspaces. The Message Center post says access to individual Workspaces capabilities will vary by license, and that access to Cowork features depends on Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and your organization’s usage-based billing setup.
The rollout timeline, as of the November 11 update:
- Frontier program: Workspaces reach users with access to Copilot Notebooks first.
- Standard release: by January 2027.
- Deferred release: by February 2027.
- Projects: available on Windows, Mac and web apps in tier 1 languages, with mobile apps coming soon.
Microsoft also says the collaborative experiences will reach Copilot Workspaces in OneNote over time.
How to set up a workspace and a project
These steps follow Microsoft’s Workspaces FAQ and the Cowork projects documentation. Menu labels may differ while Home is still rolling out.
- Open the Microsoft Copilot app and select Workspaces in the left navigation. If you still see Notebooks, the change has not reached your account yet.
- Create a workspace and choose the option to invite people, or open an existing workspace and select Invite in the upper-right corner.
- To rename it, select the arrow next to the workspace name, select Rename, enter the new name and select Save.
- For personal work, go to the Cowork tab, find the Projects heading in the left navigation and select +.
- Enter a project name, choose a color and select Create.
- Open the project’s More actions menu, select Edit instructions, describe how Cowork should work on the project and select Save.
- Start a task from the project page so it uses the project’s instructions and context from the first message.
Power-user workflows
Draft alone, then share. Microsoft says you can bring a file or other item from a project into a workspace to share it with your team.
Use project instructions for recurring work. According to the Cowork documentation, project instructions apply to later Cowork interactions in that project and take precedence over global Cowork or chat instructions. That suits recurring status reports or launch plans with a fixed audience and format.
Gather loose chats. You can add existing chats to a project, drag chats between projects and remove a task without deleting its conversation.
Review outputs in one place. A project page has Recent, Outputs and Project context sections, so you can review files produced by tasks without searching OneDrive. Our Copilot Cowork guide to Planner and OneNote and Copilot Automations guide cover other parts of Cowork you can combine with projects.
If you build agents for these spaces, see our Microsoft Copilot Harness guide. To keep a copy of your content, read how to export Microsoft Copilot data. For a comparable team hub from another vendor, see our ChatGPT Business Hub guide.
What IT admins should know
- No immediate action is required to keep existing notebooks and content available.
- Microsoft does not expect content loss. Existing links should keep working, with redirects when a web address changes.
- Core Microsoft 365 security, compliance and governance controls continue to apply.
- Microsoft recommends reviewing which users are in a spending policy that grants Cowork access and confirming your usage-based billing configuration.
Limitations
- Home is still rolling out, so menus and labels may not match Microsoft’s articles yet.
- Projects are private to the creator; use a workspace for shared work.
- Files can’t currently be removed from project outputs, according to Microsoft.
- Projects are not yet on mobile, and collaborative features reach OneNote later.
Frequently asked questions
What is Copilot Workspaces?
Copilot Workspaces is the new name for Copilot Notebooks in the Microsoft Copilot app. Microsoft describes a workspace as a shared place where you and your team keep project information and files together and work with Copilot on an ongoing workstream.
What happens to my existing Copilot Notebooks?
They become workspaces automatically. Microsoft says everything you added or created stays, existing sharing continues, and unshared notebooks remain private. You do not need to move or update anything, and no notebook features are being removed.
What is the difference between Copilot Projects and Copilot Workspaces?
Projects are for your own work: a project keeps your chats, Cowork tasks, files and results together on the Home tab. Workspaces are for group work: a shared place where your team works with Copilot on a workstream. You can use both.
When will I see Copilot Workspaces?
Microsoft says the rollout began in phases in late October 2026, first for Frontier program users with access to Copilot Notebooks. Its November 11 update says standard release will follow by January 2027 and deferred release by February 2027.
Who can use Copilot Workspaces?
Microsoft says Copilot Notebooks is available to Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat licensed users with a SharePoint or OneDrive service plan, and to Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium and Pro subscribers. Access to individual Workspaces capabilities will vary by license.
Sources
- Copilot Notebooks is now Copilot Workspaces (Microsoft Support)
- MC1535647: Microsoft Copilot app: Updates to Home and navigation (Microsoft 365 Message Center, archived; updated November 11, 2026)
- Use projects in Copilot Cowork (Microsoft Learn)
- How Microsoft Copilot Notebooks works (Microsoft Support)
- MC1479277: New ways to work across Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 (Microsoft 365 Message Center, archived)